US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

RGSA/Hawks,
With a week off from work and restricted to the apartment due to the one hundred (plus) degree heat, Taro's wife Mary must have been at her wits end.

When Cabin Fever infects the home the walls feel like they are moving closer together. Mary probably suggested to Taro, "You should go flying."

Wives' can come totally unglued with husbands noisily swish, swish, SWISHING across the carpet in their stocking feet.
(Day in and day freaking out for a whole week--well for the most part!) Good Lord by Wednesday she'd probably rather be water boarded.
The nose blowing and throat clearing without any warning what-so-ever had to be on purpose. Her mother didn't raise any dummy.

So Mary owes me big time for volunteering to drive for Taro. I'm thinking my assisting Taro to go some place and jump off a cliff is close to what she had in mind.

When Taro and I arrived at the Little Florida Mts. launch ramp site there was no ramp in sight. The ramp had in fact launched itself for a short cross country (XC) flight over the back. The one ton anchor cord after many years had mostly vaporized under the hot desert sun. The four by twelve wood top had exploded on impact which testified to the fact that it had set its second best altitude record.

About 15 years earlier the XC was three hundred yards over the back when the anchor cord yelled, "CLEAR!"

We carried the two 1/4" X 2" X 2" by twelve feet long Aluminum angle pieces back to the vehicle and tied them on the top for repair at home.

Then in hopeless desperation we walked the hill looking for any other place to launch like I had already done years before without any luck.

In the hundred degree heat we wet our shirts down and put them back on in an effort to thwart the game plan of the Grim Reaper.

We stopped in at the Adobe Deli for two Dr. Pepper's and an order of fries for just under ten dollars.

We were back in Las Cruces by 4:00 pm.
(If we can't find a better way to anchor the next ramp maybe we should apply for "N" numbers.)

RGSA/Hawks,
Things are looking up for the portable ramp that was totaled due to a steep approach on final.
While lamenting to RGSA Club President Mike Ellsworth about the exploded plywood platform, he remembered that he had some left over 7/8" plywood stored at his place. Mike's material will be thicker than the original material.
I'll spray the wingnuts and cap screws threads with Liquid Wrench and try to reclaim the fasteners. If that can be done the refit expense should only be paint and anchor cable.
If we are lucky we might do a, "Tom Sawyer," ploy and get the talented Hastings family to do a camouflage scene to blend in with the intended background area. With any luck the Hastings' will not become, Artful Dodgers.
I love work. I could just sit around and watch people do it for hours!

Feeling it too!

Apply for it here: https://amsrvs.registry.faa.gov/e.gov/nn/
Cost of new "N" number $10.

"I love work. I could just sit around and watch people do it for hours!"
Cost of cold drink priceless!!

Not liking the 100 plus temps much either.

Yo Rod, It's too hot to take pictures of your bike lately.
I reclaimed the bolts and wing nuts from the 2X2X1/4"X10'-10"Aluminum angle stiffeners (2 ofem) for the ramp. I burned my hands just carrying the angle pieces into the house to work on them. They had been laying in the sun.
After flying at Dry the other day we (Robin and I.) waved goodbye to Taro and drove to Mike Ellsworth's place up in the mountains (about 7,400' msl.) to pick up the used 7/8" plywood for the ramp. We have been slow to get at it due to the heat but today started out cool due to the rain last night here in Las Cruces. Robin stained the edges of the plywood. I did the fastener reclaiming and next I'll spray the Thompson Water Sealer at Robin's place. We (I) forgot to measure the distance the two angle stiffeners were apart so we will have to do that on site.
I had made two ten foot long ridges of rock side by side to support the angle pieces so the ramp wouldn't work like a trampoline while trying to run off a launch. Wyatt Lines found a PG launch below the tower just north of the saddle in the middle of the Little Florida Mountains.
The PG launch is about 400 yards north of the HG ramp location. (once it is returned.) This time I'll anchor it to the world with 3/32" cable. The rope didn't cut it out in the sun.

OK, the plywood has been stained, painted and made as inconspicuous as possible. Bill and I will install it when the circumstances (like, ambient temperatures) feel right. Any muscular help would be accepted with thanks!
-Robin

RobinHastings wrote:OK, the plywood has been stained, painted and made as inconspicuous as possible. Bill and I will install it when the circumstances (like, ambient temperatures) feel right. Any muscular help would be accepted with thanks!
-Robin

Robin don't let me forget to buy 3/32" cable for anchoring the ramp down this time. I already bought some 3/32" swage pieces and I need to remember to take along my swaging tool.
Mike had suggested we leave one piece of plywood 3/32" from the other piece of plywood so that the cable will not get in the way of our feet when running down the ramp. (Will not trip us. It will be down between the two pieces of plywood and holding down on the Aluminum.)

Well the ramp is back at the launch site. Robin and I slapped the portable ramp together and we carried his glider the 100 yards from the truck. After set up and at the ramp, all hooked in, the wind died. After a long wait some over-development occurred first to the NW and later to the SW then to the SE. With gust fronts from three places going in all directions Robin made the call to bag it and drag it.
It rained on us on the way out. We made it home by 8:30 pm to live and fly another day.

I forgot to mention that the road into the LZ at the Little Florida Mountain HG/PG site has had a serious washout. Right now with the stones and concrete chunks that Robin and I threw into the washout we were able to get his Toyota pickup across in four wheel drive.
It will not take too much work to make it a two wheel crossing again but it will take a pick and shovel and two people about a half hour's time to fix it.

A rock damn on the west side of the road would be nice but that would take several people many hours of work to construct.
The rock damn on the west side of the road will allow the water to back up and let the washed out road fill up with silt and dirt.
It other words the damn would eventually have nature fixing the damage that it caused.

Bill relaxing at the end of a long, long day...

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016
Well, three months later the ramp has finally been used. Bill volunteered to drive YET AGAIN, when we found that the winds would be suitable for the Little Floridas today. (He was driving for Steve Crye and Max Montgomery at the Portrillos on Friday and Saturday.) We left Las Cruces at 10:45 am and reached the dirt road to the landing zone about noon. There we built a few dams in the arroyos that are increasingly cutting across the road, hoping that future rains would wash some dirt into the chasms and fill them up. We then drove the long rough road to the launch site, put in some chocks on the ramp (which is holding up fairly well) and got me and my U2 ready to launch at 3:00 pm. Winds kept crossing from the left, which tends to lift your left wing at this site, but at 3:08 (by Bill's watch) I finally inaugurated the new ramp with a smooth takeoff into about 10 mph. Skies were clear and the winds were light today. With Bill's coaching I did S turns close by the hill and gradually got up high enough to make some 360's in the lift. I rose up to 500 feet over the ramp, at which point the lift kind of petered out. I ran over to the bowl by the towers, just south. I got some lift there, too, but that only took me so far, and before I knew it I was trolling the launch again, looking for another good one. No such luck this time, so I worked along the ridge to the south, finding only little bubbles. I finally headed for the designated LZ, where we had planted Bill's flag - the nice thing about the Little Floridas is that you can keep trying for lift all the way to the ground. The LZ is no more than a 4 to 1 glide from the launch ramp at this 1000-ft site. I did some S turns, headed onto final approach, went just past the flag, and despite Bill's admonishments, flared too soon. Still, a landing where the glider is fine, and I am too, is not to be complained about. I had 15 minutes in the air, and Bill was there to pick me up by 4:00 pm. The temperature was lovely today, the skies were cloudless, and we saw the biggest super-moon since 1948, coming home. (A super-moon is simply a full moon that happens at perigee, when that body is closest to the Earth.) Autumn in New Mexico - it's what we spend the rest of the year looking forward to. And tomorrow I'm going to drive for Bill when we go towing...
-Robin